‘He said if he had done it, then that person would have almost certainly drowned, and he’d be a murderer.’
New fiction from Claire Carroll.
Interview | Andrea Khôra on RAPTURE by Eric Block
‘I see the role of the artist to be nuanced. While exploring big ideas is one role an artist can take, I find myself hoping to create art that lets the complexity of situations exist within the work.’
Eric Block speaks to Andrea Khôra about her new film, RAPTURE.
Review | The Partial Truth by Rowland Bagnall
‘The Vast Extent offers a thoughtful exploration of believing and its origins, considering not only how ideas are formed but how they come to be revised.’
Rowland Bagnall reviews ‘The Vast Extent’ by Lavinia Greenlaw.
Review | The Spirit of the Times by Patrick Cash
‘A very physical and evocative portrayal of the town is built, even if a more beautiful story perhaps hides in its shadows.’
Patrick Cash reviews Pity and The Night Alphabet.
Interview | Stitches, Stems and Pockets in the Sublime Work of Danielle Dutton by Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou
‘But that’s often how art works. It’s intuitive. It’s murky. You’re creeping along in the dark until you’re not.’
Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou speaks to Danielle Dutton about her latest collection, Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other.
Essay | The Secret Earth by Charlotte Stroud
‘It is for this reason that I never go to my field at this time of day but wait instead until I can be alone. Only then, in my experience, will it show me a secret.’
Charlotte Stroud on the secrets of the countryside.
Review | Anthony Oliveira’s Queer Retelling of the Bible by Esmee Wright
‘To the enigmatic prose of the Bible, Oliveira layers meaning upon those ruins, not to move the story on, but to give voice to the unspoken fear.’
Esmee Wright reviews Anthony Oliveira’s Dayspring.
Review | Ali Lewis’s Absence by Nicola Healey
‘It is a book that engages thought and ideas more than feeling; this is poetry as extreme metaphysical sport.’
Nicola Healey reviews Ali Lewis’s Absence.
Review | Capote and the Treachery of the Decade by Hallam Bullock
‘As with all tortured artists, we are often more comfortable recoiling at their wounds than considering them.’
Hallam Bullock on Answered Prayers and Capote’s Women.
Interview | Between Fiction and Reality with Amélie Cordonnier by Erik Martiny
‘On social media, Twitter and text messages, I do try to couch my messages in eloquent, pithy words though. It seems important to me.’
Erik Martiny talks to Amélie Cordonnier.
Poetry | Temporary Shores by Holly Pollard
‘And again – I arrive to set out my fears, / to still rot in watery luck.’
New poetry by Holly Pollard.
Review | Biba: A Legacy Lost and Found by Deborah Nash
‘As our high streets struggle to survive changing shopping habits, brought by the pandemic, the rising cost of living and online purchasing, perhaps we need to revisit Biba’s spirit of playfulness, optimism and laughter – an opportunity unfortunately missed by this show.’
Deborah Nash on The Biba Story at The Fashion and Textile Museum.
Review | The Brightness of a Single Instance by Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou
‘Kneeling in peace or protest, Ono asks us to pick up the scissors, the pen or the match so as to creatively strike out, seek peace and light up the dark.’
Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou reviews Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind.
Interview | Phoebe Stuckes on her chilling debut, Dead Animals
‘Our world is quite self-validating at the moment, and not always for the right reasons.’
We spoke to Phoebe Stuckes about her debut novel, Dead Animals, out today.
Interview | Can Sun’s Playful yet Profound Sculptural Universe
‘I hope my works, whether they are playful or cruel, can more or less point towards the ultimate proposition — absurdity.’
We spoke to Can Sun about his forthcoming show, Brusies, at Mandy Zhang Art.
Interview | An Interview with Megan McDowell
‘At the time that I was reading it and falling in love with it, I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, I want to be a translator.” But that book started my love affair with translated literature as a reader.’
Terry Craven talks to Megan McDowell, one of the judge’s for this year’s Desperate Literature Short Story Prize.
Interview | The Radical Fabrics of Marcellina Akpojotor
‘For me, it’s a beautiful experience to be able to feel the materials with my hands while working.’
We spoke to Marcellina Akpojotor about her forthcoming show, Joy of more Worlds, at Rele Gallery.
Fiction | A Brief History of Dogs in Barcelona by Kieran Wyatt
‘I noticed she had listed three options. To hurt her. To get her attention. To make a point. I remembered learning about the rule of three at school, and I realised that it was probably a universal thing – or maybe she only used three examples when she spoke English.’
New fiction by Kieran Wyatt.
Fiction | Sump by Sheila Armstrong
‘When you are unhappy wherever you go, the common denominator is you, Teddy’s ex-girlfriend told him, with a cruelty so uncharacteristic as to be true.’
New fiction by Sheila Armstrong.
Review | The Truth about My Mother by Lucy Thynne
‘In A Woman’s Story, Ernaux more than fills de Beauvoir’s feminist and existentialist shoes. And as the family’s ‘archivist’, she is every bit the dutiful daughter.’
Lucy Thynne on Annie Ernaux’s A Woman’s Story.
Review | Rachael Allen’s God Complex by Elliot C. Mason
‘The demands of the male observer are hidden, his words never breaking through from the silent ubiquity of their god complex.’
Elliot C. Mason reviews Rachael Allen’s God Complex.
Essay | Giving Up by Christiana Spens
‘All at once, it felt nihilistic and misguided. I had been on this extended fast, but it was devoted to absent men and not any real god. As such, there had been no revelation or resolution, no peace.’
Christiana Spens on Lent.
Essay | Frock Consciousness by Katie Tobin
‘So what is the power of literary fashion, then? For me it lies in its virtuality, that imaginary quality of the ekphrastic, something so beautiful that it cannot exist in real life as we know it on the page. That virtuality also ties into the codification of clothing, and how it might suggest something about its wearer without saying as much.’
Katie Tobin on the Bloomsbury Group and fashion.
Review | Care, Spit, and Queer Confessional: 52 Monologues by Jennifer Jasmine White
‘When we confess, we spit something out, something previously secret and slippery, something summoned up from deep inside.’
Jennifer Jasmine White reviews 52 Monologues at the Soho Theatre.